Business as Usual
Project Description
Business as Usual is a multifaceted work by Carey Young (b. 1970, Lusaka, Zambia), a British-American artist based in London whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses video, photography, text, performance and installation. Young’s work critically examines how language, law, corporate systems, power and gender shape contemporary life.
The project explores the dynamics of power, language and authority within the corporate world. Combining installation, video and performance, Young examines the formal and often impersonal structures of business environments, questioning how corporate language and behaviour shape identities, relationships and individual subjectivity.
A central concern of Business as Usual is the apparent neutrality of corporate language. Terms associated with efficiency, professionalism and objectivity become tools through which particular systems of power are normalised. By presenting the corporate environment as a highly controlled and artificial construct, Young exposes the performative nature of professional roles and the ways in which individuals are encouraged to conform to structures established by institutions.
The work also considers how corporate culture extends beyond the workplace into broader social and personal life. Young scrutinises spoken and written language for the ways in which it influences behaviour, social relations and systems of value. The apparent objectivity of business communication becomes a means of revealing the assumptions and hierarchies embedded within it.
Business as Usual asks how the language and rituals of corporate culture shape the ways in which we understand ourselves, interact with others and navigate contemporary society.
Young’s practice subsequently developed a sustained engagement with law and justice, extending her earlier investigations of corporate culture into questions of authority, representation, gender and institutional power. Works such as Palais de Justice, The Vision Machine, Appearance and Surfaces of Law continue this interrogation through film, photography, installation and text.
Business as Usual is a Film and Video Umbrella touring exhibition curated in association with John Hansard Gallery. It was supported by the National Touring Programme of the Arts Council of England, with additional funding from East England Arts and Year of the Artist.
Bio
Carey Young (b. 1970, Lusaka, Zambia) is a British-American artist based in London whose practice encompasses video, photography, text, performance and installation. Her work explores the relationships between language, the body and systems of power, with particular attention to corporate culture, law, justice and gender.
Young has exhibited internationally at institutions including Tate, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Venice Biennale. Recent exhibitions include Appearance at Modern Art Oxford (2023) and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2024), Borderline at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2025), Good Service, Good Performance at Le Magasin, Grenoble (2025), and The Rupture at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2026). Her work has also been included in Nobody Knows What Nobody Knows at Acapulco 62, Mexico City (2026).
Project Details
Year: 2001–2002
Artist: Carey Young
Exhibition: Business as Usual
Curated in association with: John Hansard Gallery
Curated by: Film and Video Umbrella
Format: Touring exhibition
Works: Video, photography, text, performance and installation
Support: National Touring Programme, Arts Council of England; East England Arts; Year of the Artist
Country: United Kingdom